Using luabind and std::shared_ptr with inheritance

Question

I've got an API (a specific GUI library) that relies on std::shared_ptr a lot, i.e. they are often used as function parameters and stored within other objects. For example, container widgets, such as splitters and boxes will store their child widgets in shared_ptrs. Now I would like to map this API to Lua via luabind. In an ideal world, Luabind would create new objects in shared_ptrs and allow me to pass those directly to functions taking shared_ptr parameters. This seems to work for single classes, e.g.:

luabind::class_<Button, std::shared_ptr<Button>>("Button")

While I declare it like that, I can expose and use functions like void foo(std::shared_ptr<Button> const&).

Now the luabind manual mentions that in order to use a hierarchy of classes, I'd have to use the same shared_ptr template-instance for all classes in the hierarchy, e.g.

luabind::class_<BaseWidget, std::shared_ptr<BaseWidget>>("BaseWidget"),
luabind::class_<Button, BaseWidget, std::shared_ptr<BaseWidget>>("Button")

Now I can no longer call foo - it will fail to find the function from Lua. Can I somehow get luabind to still support passing buttons in shared_ptrs? Also, I would like to know why luabind mandates that you use the same smart pointer for all classes in the hierarchy instead of them just being convertible to base class pointers.

Answer 1

I think for that to work you have to bind your derived class like this:

luabind::class_<Button, BaseWidget, std::shared_ptr<Button>> ("Button")

For example:

class BaseWidget
{
public:
    static void Bind2Lua(lua_State* l)
    {
        luabind::module(l)
        [
            luabind::class_<BaseWidget, std::shared_ptr<BaseWidget>> ("BaseWidget")
            .def(luabind::constructor<>())
        ];
    }

    virtual ~BaseWidget()
    {

    }
};

class Button : public BaseWidget
{
public:
    static void Bind2Lua(lua_State* l)
    {
        luabind::module(l)
        [
            luabind::class_<Button, BaseWidget, std::shared_ptr<Button>> ("Button")
            .def(luabind::constructor<>())
            .def("Click", &Button::Click)
        ];
    }

    void Click()
    {
        std::cout << "Button::Click" << std::endl;
    }
};

Now you can use it with shared_ptr:

class Action
{
public:
    void DoClick(const std::shared_ptr<Button>& b)
    {
        // perform click action
        b->Click();
    }

    static void Bind2Lua(lua_State* l)
    {
        luabind::module(l)
        [
            luabind::class_<Action> ("Action")
            .def(luabind::constructor<>())
            .def("DoClick", &Action::DoClick)
        ];
    }
};

In lua:

b = Button()

a = Action()

a:DoClick(b)

The reason is that luabind uses type-id system with integers (more precisely std::size_t as defined in inheritance.hpp).
You can obtain the type-id of any registered type with the function:

luabind::detail::static_class_id<T>(nullptr);

Where T is the registered class.
In my demo program they are:

• BaseWidget = 3
• std::shared_ptr< BaseWidget > = 6
• Button = 4
• std::shared_ptr< Button > = 7
• Action = 5

So when you call DoClick from lua, it will call the get member of the template class pointer_holder in instance_holder.hpp:

std::pair<void*, int> get(class_id target) const
{
    if (target == registered_class<P>::id)
        return std::pair<void*, int>(&this->p, 0);

    void* naked_ptr = const_cast<void*>(static_cast<void const*>(
        weak ? weak : get_pointer(p)));

    if (!naked_ptr)
        return std::pair<void*, int>((void*)0, 0);

    return get_class()->casts().cast(
        naked_ptr
      , static_class_id(false ? get_pointer(p) : 0)
      , target
      , dynamic_id
      , dynamic_ptr
    );
}

As you can see, if the target class is not the same as the one registered, it will try to do a cast.
This is where things get interesting. If you declared the Button class as

luabind::class_<Button, BaseWidget,std::shared_ptr<BaseWidget>>("Button")

then the instance will be held as a shared_ptr to BaseWidget, thus the cast function will try to cast from BaseWidget (3) to std::shared_ptr< Button > (7) and that fails. It could work if luabind supported base-to-derived conversion, which it doesn't seem to.

If however you declared the Button class as

luabind::class_<Button, BaseWidget, std::shared_ptr<Button>> ("Button")

then the instance will be held as as a shared_ptr to Button and then the target id will match the registered type. The get function will branch on the first return, never to bother with the cast.

You can also find the self contained program I used here at pastebin.

And here is a list of interesting break points you can set to see what's happening (luabind version 900):

• line 94 in instance_holder.hpp (first line of pointer_holder::get)
• line 143 in instance.cpp (first line of cast_graph::impl::cast)